Dear Friends,
The last three months have flown by in a flurry of working and learning! I am making good progress in French so that I understand more of what people say by the day. It is a comfort to know that I have friends and loved ones at home praying for me as it is sometimes difficult to be in a situation where everyone except you knows what is happening.
In July I attended the youth camp at Camp Arc-en-Ciel, a ministry operated by Missionaries Tim and Elizabeth Knickerbocker. The Knickerbockers have a wonderful ministry here in southern France. As there are very few Christian camps in France, kids of all ages come from every part of the country for a full two weeks of fellowship and learning with other Christian kids. Most of them have only a few (if any) friends their own age at church. It helps them to be able to see other kids who know the Lord. Some of them bring their unsaved friends to camp. In the second camp, a good number of teens made decisions to follow the Lord.
In August I was given the opportunity to stay with a family from Bible Baptist Church of St. Gaudens. They are good Christian people and, to my advantage, Mrs. Daleau is a French teacher from Michigan who moved to France for the same reason I am here. A couple of months ago her husband had an accident at work and broke his back. They have four children and he was unable to lift any of them or help with the housework. Praise the Lord he is doing better, though he may not be able to do the same work as before. I spent an entire month with them helping around the house and with the children.
The Apollos Program began on September 6th (My Birthday) and with it the real work has begun. My Dad arrived here on the 10th to spend a week in the ministry and in preparation to go to Cameroon. The same week that my Dad was in France we had a group of 11 people from Mikado Baptist Church in Georgia. They were such a blessing to everyone here. A lot of work was accomplished that could not have been done in one week without their help. We were able to distribute around 4000 tracts from door to door going through several small towns around St. Gaudens and have had several visitors to the church and at least two people saved in the last month.
It is October now and the Apollos program has kicked into high gear. We have 12 hours of classes per week (Monday – Wednesday) and then go to different churches all over southern France to do tract distribution and evangelism, give our testimonies, and sing as a group. So far we have visited churches in Aix-en-Provence, Limoges, Toulouse, and Montauban.
It has really been a blessing to see the churches and the good people God has put in them. On the other hand I have 
seen the confusion and denial of God that many French people have. One of the tools we use to speak to people is a kind of religious poll. Two questions from that poll are: Do you believe that God exists? And, Do you believe that the bible is inspired by God? Many times a person would answer “No” to the first and “Yes” to the second without skipping a beat. They are so confused in their beliefs that they do not even notice that their answers do not match.
Please pray for this country! There are so few Christians and so many lost people. Good missionaries are working hard for the Lord and I believe that God will bless and give fruit for their labor. Thank you for your prayers and your support of the work here.
Rachel Gostlin